College Football

BCS Championship. LSU and Ohio State. Nothing much I can say about this one. However, I do want to comment on the Sugar Bowl. Georgia vs. Hawaii. I know, everyone last year said Boise State had no business being on the field with Oklahoma. With all due respect to OU, they aren't a red hot Georgia team from the SEC. Hawaii has never seen speed like Georgia has. The experts are saying that Hawaii's quarterback, Colt Brennan, is good enough to pick apart Georgia. He might be, but I don't think he has seen a defense like Georgia's. While they may not sack him they are fast enough to disrupt him. The DBs for Georgia are scary fast, too. Two words that, in my opinion will win the game for Georgia: closing speed.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

If I ever find myself in Cleveland again, I will probably visit the RRHOF. They just announced a new slate of inductees. Chicago is not there. Madonna is. Is this right? I don't think so. Granted, Chicago is a shell of their former self, but still, all they did is create and perfect a new sound. If taking rock music in a new direction isn't a qualification for entry, then I don't know what is. All I can guess that the powers that be just don't like Chicago. I think the Sex Pistols had it right when they refused to attend their induction and, in fact, sent a note calling the RRHOF a "piss stain." Well said.

LSU-BCS

Who'd have thought it? LSU in the BCS vs. Ohio State. What a wild, wild season. OSU was a lock as they were the only one-loss team that had a BCS-worthy resume (sorry, Kansas). Any one of the 2-loss teams might go. I think Georgia and Missouri, because they didn't win their conferences, shouldn't go. I know what you are thinking. Two teams from the past that didn't win their conferences went (Nebraska and Oklahoma). However, that was a different formula. If you use the formula they use today, those two teams wouldn't have gotten in.

That being said, I hope we don't get the attitude that since Florida crushed OSU last year, all we have to do is show up and we'll win. Nope, that won't work. OSU is a darn good team. The best thing about us that we have a month off to heal up. Oh, and Les Miles is staying. That is the most wonderful news of all.

Leopard!

I upgraded to Leopard. From what I've seen, I like it. I also got the new iLife '08 and iWork '08. The new iPhoto stuff is really neat. I haven't really messed around with IWork, so that is forthcoming. The best thing about Leopard is it is backups for idiots. I have been terrible about backing up stuff, and this does it for you.

Tomorrow I get to go to N.O. (yippee!) for a federal court seminar. The good thing about this is that it gets me admitted into all three federal courts here as well as the 5th Court of Appeals. LIke I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff in federal court soon. You never know, though, and I guess it is a good thing to have.

Deliverance and the Next Generation

This is Zoey





One of my favorite scenes is the "Dueling Banjos" from Deliverance. It was only years later that I realized that the guy playing the banjo with the kid is Ronny Cox. I guess it is my weirdness, but I like to imagine different characters from different films interacting. For instance, one of my favorite Star Trek - The Next Generation episodes is "Chain of Command" where Ronny Cox plays an (initially) asshole CO. Ever since I saw Deliverance, I thought it would be awesome if during the episode, Jellico (Cox's character) and Data pulled out the banjo and guitar and jammed.

Cold weather finally here. Loving it.

Top Gun and culture shock

This is Tom Servo


Although Top Gun is an okay movie, it has probably my favorite opening scenes of any movie (even the Bond films). I have to fight the urge to go to the nearest navy recruitment office when I see it.

If you folks want to experience culture shock to the nth degree, then do what I did the other day. I went to Whole Foods, followed immediately by a trip to Wal Mart. My God. It is like going from Beverly HIlls to East St. Louis.

Late for the bandwagon

One thing I may be guilty of is being late for the bandwagon on what is popular at the time. Three things, however, that I was NOT late for are: Cheers, Hill Street Blues, and Seinfeld. I loved all three of those shows way before they became popular. One current show that I was late for, however is Heroes. I remember last year with the "Save the cheerleader, save the world" tag thinking "this may be all right." It took me until two weeks ago to think - maybe I'll like it. As fate would have it, the first season is out on DVD. A quick trip to Amazon and wow - what a great show. I love the ensemble acting - I love the interaction between characters that don't know they are "special" With DVDs, and also with this one, the commentary is my favorite part. I only saw the one with the Indian guy, Jack Coleman (of Dynasty fame) and the guy that is Niki's husband. How cool is that? Pretty cool.

Jenna

I know, this is my second post about Jenna Bush. You might think I have a crush on her or something. Truth be told, I always thought Barbara was the cuter one. Jenna is in the news now because she wrote a book about a Central American girl with AIDS. I'll give her credit. When she could be doing cushy stuff here, she went to some of the most depressing places on earth to teach and to help. While we have to be realistic about this - she no doubt had a secret service detail and an entourage that would rival Jamie Foxx's, nevertheless she was there. Kinda like Al Gore being a journalist in Vietnam. While he didn't see the hell most soldiers did, he was in country and doing his duty. Same for Jenna. She seems to be a pretty okay girl and I wish her the best.

Torchwood

As a big fan of the X-Files, I was looking forward to a show premiering on BBC America called "Torchwood" It is about a group, outside of government control, called Torchwood. They investigate aliens and paranormal activity. It is great! I can't wait for the other shows. I love the British cast, and I it is set in Cardiff, Wales. I don't know if they shoot there, but if they do, it is a really pretty city.

The Blues Brothers

One of my fondest memories back in the Army at Fulda, was our (Mine, Dan and Roger's) ritual of watching The Blues Brothers. I saw it for the first time in years the other day, and it brought back those memories.
This was where Dan and I first heard "Sam and Dave".
Some of the viewings was with our roommate of a short while, Steve Lightner. During one of the wonderful dance numbers, the song "Think" sung by Aretha Franklin, one of the three background dancers is a big fat woman in a post office uniform. Steve loved watching her dance, remarking something like "look at that sister gettin' down!"

Another of the dance numbers, by Ray Charles, there is a huge cast of dancers - everyone dances - old, young, black, white, men, women - all together and wonderful. My favorite part is when it starts, and the group is dancing as one - and a guy comes into the scene, doing backflips, lands perfectly and in line with the other dancers.

Also, the concert scene - where they do the intro, finish and pose to a perfectly silent audience. Then, they bring down the house.

Vick

I agree with BIll Maher, a lifelong animal rights advocate, that I, myself, am not qualified to impartially impose a sentence on Michael Vick. I did read, however, that the judge that will sentence him has a Biscon Friche as a pet. One hopes he is informed that the fuckwad slimeballs that do dogfighting kidnap smaller dogs to use as "practice."

When the police made the initial investigation at Vick's home, the newspaper reported it was a drug investigation. One wonders if the person that knew what was going on at Vick's also knew that the police wouldn't put dogfighting on the priority list. Therefore, the informant told the police that it involved drugs, so they would then mobilze quickly - and, ergo, discovered a dogfighting operation.

Mexico has their shit together

While listening to coverage of Hurricane Dean on CNN International (my new favorite news channel), they mentioned that Mexico had busses evacuating the residents of towns along the Yucatan peninsula in Dean's path. Imagine that. Mexico having their shit together while we let the residents of New Orleans suffer.

Goin' to the chapel . . .

Well, well, well. It seems some young man happened to capture Jenna Bush's wild and crazy heart and they's gonna git hitched.
The lucky fella's name is Henry Hager and he is the son of the chairman of Virginia's Republican party. That's a surprise. Here's a picture of the cute couple. Doesn't he look like the mother of all Young Republican poster children?

Aw, shoot. I shouldn't be so cynical. After all, if I am in favor of anybody in love being able to marry, then I should be happy for Jenna and Henry. I am. I'll drink a Bombay and tonic to the young couple. Cheers!

2008 Olympics and home cookin'

Already on CNN International they are doing stories on how the Chinese expect to win the most medals at the 2008 games. Given that it is going to be in China, I would not be surprised if the home cookin', which is what we Southerners call the favorable calls due to home field advantage, sees this to be true. It is way to early to make predictions, but I think, given a level playing field, the U.S. should win handily.

For instance, the U.S. should rout the world in swimming. There was a rumor is that the Chinese held their best athletes back to save them for the Olympics. If they did hold them back, it was for fear that they would get beat anyway. But why deny an elite athlete the opportunity to compete against the best and see if they are truly the best swimmers?

However, in the subjective sports, the diving, the gymnastics, etc., the Chinese-leaning judges will give as many medals to the home team as they can.

Golf no longer an olympic sport. Never will football be an olympic sport. That's too bad.

LSU recruiting

One of the things that pains me to hear is the yearly bitching among the LSU faithful that we are not recruiting as well as other schools. First I digress. A booming internet industry has arisen within the last couple of years dealing with football recruiting. Prior to the internet age, there existed recruiting services whose primary job was to observe and subjectively rate high school football players, usually on a one-to five-star rating. These services existed in newsletter and magazine form and were only read by those in the football industry. With the advent of the internet, rabid college football fans everywhere had access to these previously inaccessable ratings, reports and news for the nominal fee of around twelve dollars a month. Suddenly, these rabid college football fans could see who their team was recruiting, who was interested in what college, and who committed (verbally) to what college. LSU fans could see, in real time, that we have, for instance, fourteen verbal committments, six of whom are "four stars" and eight are "three stars". This causes great consternation among the LSU faithful, who see that Georgia has four "five star" verbal commitments, Florida has four "five star commitments" and LSU has none. This, in the mindset of a LSU fan, means catastrophic failure in recruiting.

Now for the reality. The "star ratings" are as subjective as who you think the prettiest actress on television is. Sure there are a number of "five star" recruits that become all americans and stars of their teams. However, the number of three star, two star and other players who don't merit a "star" have gone on to become talented and fearsome college players. The message to LSU fans who fret over our recruiting is - chill out. These coaches know what they are doing and we'll be okay.

Klingons and BabelCon '07

On August 4, 2007, BabelCon '07 was held in Port Allen. I met four of my crewmates from the IKV Bayou Serpent: Commander Ri'par sutai-bortaS, Lieutenant Commander K'Allen vestai-bortaS, Lieutenant Ni'Vek and Lieutenant Torsha vestai-bortaS. We got into uniform, except for Torsha, who is expecting a new Klingon warrior in October. It was our privilege to meet Gowron at the airport. He knew nothing of this, and the look on his face when he rounded the corner to see four Klingons in full uniform was priceless. He was touched by this greeting. The next day at Babel Con, we mingled with the humans and got to meet Bob May, the original robot for Lost in Space, Lee Meriwether, Losira from TOS as well as Barnaby Jones' assistant, and Robert O'Reilly, of course. All were most gracious in giving autographs and taking pictures. They all gave presentations which were very interesting. Gowron told amusing stories of PIcard holding heavy cloaks for many takes, Gowron's Klingon teeth coming flying out and stories of his children. I was most honored to be included in this ship's mission, as well as to be privileged to meet these fine people. I bade farewell to my most honorable crew and wished them well until next time, which I home is soon.

All Things Klingon

Given the inordinate number of Star Wars posts, I only feel that it is proper to pay homage to my true calling, the Klingon Empire. Ever since the first original Star Trek episode "Errand of Mercy" with Kor, my heart has always been Klingon. This is even more true with the evolution of Klingons in Next Generation to an honorable and proud race. One of my favorite scenes is the in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" where the crew is subject to an alternate timeline involving the Enterprise-C. The Enterprise-C goes through a time rift in its own time and appears in the time of the Enterprise-D, altering the Enterprise D's future, which now involves a war with the Klingons instead of an alliance. We learn that in the Enterprise C's time, they are supposed to be destroyed defending a Klingon outpost against a Romulan attack. This incident, which the Klingons viewed as most honorable, was a key in forging the Federation/Klingon alliance. This episode tells us how highly and how prized the Klingons view honor.

In looking for informtion on the upcoming science fiction convention, BabelCon '07, I discovered there is a Klingon ship and crew in Louisiana, the Imperial Klingon Vessel (IKV) Bayou Serpent. The commander is Ri'Par sutai-bortaS, who was kind enough to welcome me in the crew. I took a Klingon name, B'ehrmaq, and proceeded to cobble together a Klingon uniform. The goal was to be in full Klingon uniform for the BabelCon '07. I would have gone to the convention anyway, but one of the guests was going to be Robert O'Reilly, who played Gowron in TNG and DS9.

OK, I know this is turning into a "Star Wars" blog

When I was in the military, at least in the cavalry units, there is a position called the "regimental master gunner." This is the NCO who scored the highest at the range for the Bradley and M1 Abrams. The regimental commander naturally has the regimental master gunner on his tank crew. This is still true in the Star Wars universe. In The Empire Strikes Back, General Veers is the overall ground attack commander, but he also has his own AT-AT (walker). He also has the equivalent of the regimental master gunner on his crew. This is beacause his walker absolutely gives a beatdown to the rebels, laying waste to their position with very few wasted shots. His walker even shoots a speeder out of the sky. So, in the Star Wars futurew, here's to you, Mr. Regimental Master Gunner.

Superfriends makes me scratch my head . . .

Today's post is about one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, The Challenge of the Superfriends. This is where the superfriends battle the Legion of Doom in various and sundry adventures. The particular episode this week was a variation on ST-TOS "Arena" where some advanced being brought five superfriends and five LOD members to a planet, where, the superior collective would be determined. In the first test, Batman and the Joker competed to be the first to navigate a maze. Joker barely misses falling in a pit, which was carefully carved out in a rectangle from the cement floor. So, Joker, in this cement maze, conveniently finds palm fronds which he covers the pit. Batman, a superhero with no real superpowers other than his intellect, fails to ignore the palm fronds on the otherwise cement floor and falls in the pit. Mmmhuh. In another improbable contest, the Scarecrow (whose superpower{s} I have yet to ascertain) and Apache Chief have to find and defeat a two-headed snake. OK. Apache Chief's power is that he can grow to fifty feet tall. He fails to use this, his only superpower, and loses the contest. Mmmhuh. All is well, however, because Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, despite his fuckup, win their contest and the match.

WTF?

Our creepy homeland security chief, Michael Chernoff or whatever, was on the television commenting on the British terrorism incidents. He said something like - "I don't see there being any credible threat to the homeland." WTF? What is this, Nazi Germany? Next thing, the police will be stopping me as I'm walking my dog at 1 a.m. and asking for my papers?

This reallly is a scary place we live in. I think to myself, well, I don't win the lottery, I don't win big when I go to the casino, but, those are the odds. Sometimes the odds work in your favor, as when I am NOT the person who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and, as a result, get the police busting through your door at 1 a.m. Seriously, in this day and age, how easy is it for the police, in the name of "homeland security" to totally fuck your life up? Pretty easy.

Students have no, and I mean no rights

I remember back in my days of mandatory school. I'm not talking about college or law school, where they didn't care if you went to class or what you wore. Elementary school and junior high were, for me, a place where teachers had unquestioned authority. Part of it was my conformity to the system and part of it was knowing that if my parents found out I sassed a teacher, well, I'd be in a world of hurt. High school was the same for the most part, at least until I was a senior. Then, perhaps an unwritten rule gave us freedom to skip class, wander the halls during class, etc. However, if a teacher told me to get back to class, I would.

This brings us to the case recently decided by the Supreme Court, where the justices, by a 5 to 4 decision, upheld the rights of a school to regulate activities of students with regards to speech. The question that I have, that I haven't had answered to my satisfaction, was whether this student was at a "school sponsored event." In a wonderful column, James Kilpatrick dissects this most ill decided opinion. He seems to think that this was not a school sponsored event. If not, it opens up the door to teacher regulation of student behavior anytime.

However, whether on school time or not, I think that the Court overturned the Tinker case, where a previous court upheld the wearing of black armbands to protest the Vietname war. As the court stated here the test seems to be whether, in the opinion of the teacher or administrator, the action of the student upsets good order and discipline. In this case, the court said the "Bong Hits for Jesus" was determined by the principal to advocate drug use. It follows, using the court's logic, that advocating drug use upsets good order and discipline in a school. This means that the administrator was well within their rights to suspend this student.

The court leaves it to the teachers and administrators, then, to be the decider as to what is disruptive to good order and discipline . As long as there is a rational basis for the teacher's decision it will be upheld. If we believe Kilpatrick, then a student can be spanked down anywhere, for anything, depending on the mood of the teacher or administrator (and presumably their political affiliation) So, if you have cool teachers, you are okay. However, if you have a bunch of hard assess, well, you better not even speak ill (even at the mall) of our chimpanzee in the white house you you gonna get a suspending.

College World Series and Star Wars

Watched the last part of "Revenge of the Sith" when I got home. I will never cease to be amazed at the full circle of the films. I'm watching Ewan McGregor and I'm seeing Alec Guiness. McGregor must have lived and breathed the first Star Wars. It is effortless to see the change from Obi-Wan in Revenge to Obi-Wan in Star Wars. i loved seeing the young (well, I know it wasn't him but they got a pretty damn good representation of when he was younger) Peter Cushing as Moff Tarkin. That always puzzled me - in the first Star Wars, it seemed that Tarkin was over Vader - when, as the Emperor's apprentice, it seems Vader should have busted him in his head. Ida know.

Well. A rematch in the CWS. I don't know who to pull for. I want LSU to still be the last team to win back-to-back. But, I want the traditional baseball power conference (Pac 10) to win rather than the ACC.

I hate Prairie Home Companion

One of the little tortures of being with M for all those years was that, every weekend, I was subjected to the torture that is the Prairie Home Companion radio show. I cannot put my finger on it, but I hated, hated, hated that show. I hated the god awful "update from Lake Woebegone" worst of all.

The Superfriends

OK, let me get this straight. In an episode of the Superfriends, we learned that Lex Luthor and Superman were friends back in Smallville. Lex Luthor's lab was on fire, and Superman PUTS THE FIRE OUT and SAVES HIS LIFE, but in the course of putting the fire out, Superman's breath blew chemicals onto Luthor and made him bald. So . . . the reason Lex Luthor hates Superman with a passion is because he turned him bald. Mmmm. Hey, Lex, meet Jean-Luc Picard. He's bald and he'll kick your ass.

College World Series

The super regionals are set.

North Carolina v. South Carolina
Ole Miss v. Arizona State
Rice v. Texas A&M
Mississippi State v. Clemson
Michigan v. Oregon State
Cal Fullerton v. UCLA
Wichita State v. Cal-Irvine
Oklahoma State v. Louisville

It goes without saying that there are more teams who are not traditional baseball programs this year. Neverthless, I maintain my position that experience and seasoning counts for more, particularly the farther you go. For that reason, I am going to say Cal Fullerton and Rice in the finals.

MLB draft is tomorrow. We'll see how high LSU recruits go. I still think that a major college program prepares you for the show better than the minors.

The changed face of college baseball

There once was a time, years ago, when one could predict the winner of the college world series. The winner would most likely come out of this group: USC, Cal State Fullerton, Arizona State, Texas, LSU, Rice, Miami, and Stanford. Not any more. Regionals started today and several number one seeds lost. Let's see, San Diego lost, Arkansas lost, Florida State lost, and Texas is on the verge of losing, I think captain obvious would say that college baseball has achieved parity. However, winning regionals is one thing - let's see how the super regionals and CWS pans out. It takes a mature, experienced and, most of all, deep team to win it all. If Texas makes it out of the regionals, my money's on them. If not, I'd say Fullerton or Rice. I'd like for Vandy to win it all, because they are such a classy team and coach, but I don't think they are seasoned enough. It took LSU five CWS trips before they won it all.

Eddie Murphy, tic-tacs and Klingons

I like it when an actor (or writer or whoever) ties two unrelated movies together. In The Golden Child, one of mine and Rog's favorite moments is when Eddie Murphy is tied up and the thug (played by Randall "Tex" Cobb) emphasizes what his boss says by putting his face inches from Eddie's and says "Yeeesss" as he breathes on Eddie. Eddie makes a wonderful face and says "In my pocket, I got a whole thing of tic-tacs - take as many as you want - please!"

In Shrek, for some reason, Donkey (voice by Eddie Murphy) is subjected to Shrek's breath, to which he replies something about having tic-tacs and Shrek being welcome to them.

BabelCon is getting better and better. Freakin' Robert O'Reilly (Gowron) is going to be there! I'd crawl across ground glass to go to see him. Anyway, on the BabelCon site, there is a link to a group in La. who do Klingon role play. That is so cool! I sent stuff to join up. Looking forward to getting/making a uniform.

Weekend Musings

Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone. I have nothing but fond memories of my service in the Army. My two army buddies, Dan and Roger, are as good as they come.

M mentioned, a couple of days ago, that "we have to go to Mississippi" I don't know if she realized the first time she brought it up, but I am not going to Mississippi ever again. I have wasted too many days on that bullshit. If she wants to go, she can go. I ain't going.

Reason number 233 why I am strange. I liked Armageddon and Independence Day.

LSU baseball is over. The consensus seems to be to give Manieri a couple of years, recruit his own guys, and then see how he does. I just hope they realize that the SEC isn't what it was when Bertman won those five world series trophies. I just hope the draft doesn't hurt us too bad.

People die on me.

I had a hearing last week. The investigator talked to the respondent on Wednesday, the day before the hearing, and he said he would be there. He wasn't. Come to find out, he wasn't there because he died. That makes the fourth person against whom I have had a hearing that has died on me.

SEC baseball tournament started. LSU not in it. There is hope for the future. Already one upset. No. 8 Tennessee beat No. 1 seed Vanderbilt. Goes to show how strong the SEC is top to bottom. Hopefully it will season the teams for the College World Series.

I wasn't able to send mail for the longest time. So, before I called tech support, I checked out the self-help stuff and, lo and behold, it got fixed. Hopefully no more problems.

Since I am not going to be "family planning" on the cell phone with Michell, I got me a new plan. And a new toy. I got a Palm Treo. So far I like it. Now, I'm working my way through the DVD set for Drew Carey Show. I do love the "Five O'Clock World" credit song, more than the others.

What a wonderful week

Monday morning. Bomb threat at work. Some yahoo emailed it in. We stood around for three hours and then they said ok, you need to go home, so the IT folks can check it out. Tuesday morning. Another bomb threat. Again, standing around again. Finally, we are told to go home again. IT is checking it out. Wednesday morning. The third bomb threat. This time, they let us go back to work. Wouldn't you think that anybody who claims to be competent in computers this day would be able to cacth this slime? Then again, we are dealing with STATE workers. Our IT are thorougly incompetent, would be reasonable to hope others, like from the AG, would be any better?

Had a hearing Thursday morning. Appeal of license denial. Upheld.

Friday. Finally watched Bill Maher's show. It's worth paying for HBO to get that.

Star Wars movies

I am a big fan of all of the movies, but I probably like Empire and the original Star Wars better than the rest. It is the little touches that make them great, however. The way the ion cannon kicks some serious Empire ass in ESB. The way that, when a force field separates Darth Maul from Qui-Gon, Qui-Gon quietly meditates while Darth Maul paces like a big cat. My favorite moment, hardly a little one, is at the end of Sith. It is the scene when Kenobi has beaten Vader, and leaves him on the lava. As Kenobi starts to slowly makes his way up the hill, he picks up Vader's light saber. This would be the same light saber shown to us some twenty odd years earlier in the original Star Wars, when Kenobi gives it to Luke and says "this is your father's light saber."

Politics 1

If I were a Republican, the current crop of candidates would be seriously freaking me out. Judging by the debate at the Ronald Reagan Library, hoo boy, what a crew. My favorite was McCain going all nuclear on Bin Laden, saying how he'd follow him to the gates of hell; then he gives a pasted on Westworld smile. Are they all robots?

Air Conditioning

Going to be a long, hot summer here. Fleas are already starting to blossom. Isn't it funny. Here, I have a few fleas, but nothing bad. At M's house, there is a freaking infestation. Seriously, you go in one room and get fifty jumping on your ankle. Lets see, I have dogs, she has dogs. I have cats, she has cats. Why is her house so much worse?

Two words. Air Conditioning. I have it, she doesn't. Wait a minute, you say. She lives in south Louisiana and doesn't have air conditioning? Yep, you are right. That should have been a red flag twelve years ago, but I was stupid and I paid dearly for my sins. There are people who don't have air conditioning, I realize. They, however, are poor, live in a trailer, have no job, etc. M is none of these. She is quite well off, has a nice old house, and could easily afford the small additional expense of air conditioning. Why not, then? I. Don't. Know. As one of my friends told her - He said she is probably the only, and we mean only person of her socioeconomic status (i.e. rich person) in Louisiana that doesn't have air conditioning.

Animal cruelty no more

In a historic move, the Louisiana House Agriculture committee passed a bill to ban cockfighting. Louisiana was the only state where this is legal. Past bills didn't pass out of the committee, but they saw the winds of change. The only thing is it was passed with an effective date in 18 months. Other bills are pending to make it effective immediately. There is the chance that this bill will be amended to make it effective immediately as well. Poor, poor mouthbreathers. Now they'll have to enjoy their animal torture underground.

I knew it was over

After Hurricane Katrina, M's great uncle was going to have to evacuate New Orleans. She says to me, without any inkling of "this is a favor" or "I want to ask you something" but rather she says "Lewis can stay with you." Now I'm sorry, but my home is my castle, and for her to open it to a stranger without asking, well, that is beyond belief. While we were together since 1994, we never lived together. I had my house and she had hers. Never did I bring up the subject of marriage, and never did I want to. If she thought the relationship was to the point that what's mine is hers, then that's when it is ended. Perhaps I am too selfish, perhaps I am one of those persons that can never truly share a life with another, I don't know. I just know that our relationship could never evolve as those that are truly in love evolve. I have many friends, married friends and not, who have just such a relationship. I understand it and am happy for them, but I don't know if I could ever be one of those persons. Certainly not with M. It's over, never to be revisited. I wish her only the best.

Half Life 2

Shameless plug for one heck of a video game. The first Half LIfe was awesome - what a story line and what an execution! Now here comes Half Life 2 with terrific graphics, but also the little things: the way object react according to what their weight would be if it were real; picking up stuff; the views of the city, of the canal, of the ocean, bridges, beaches, and all. I didn't think games would get any more enjoyable than the head shots with the rifle in Gun, but it could. Using the gravity gun, which can pick up and hurl objects, with circular saw blades against zombies takes the cake.

Here is a gallery of my favorite video games (sometimes the old ones are pretty good)

Phantasmagoria 2
Shivers 2 (for the music alone)
Starflight and Starfleet-the war begins (two of the first games I played)
Gabriel Knight - the one with werewolves
Gun

Draft to remember

Wow. Four LSU players in the first round. That's stuff of Miami lore. We are going to miss them. IMHO, LaRon will be the hardest to replace. While he made his share of stuffs, I think his greatest contribution was keeping a 3-5 yard gain from turning into a 15-20 yard gain.

One reason I got HBO was so that I could see Bill Maher again. I'm glad I did. He has a pretty good little show.

What a Weekend

Boston swept the Yankees for the first time in 17 years. That would be 1990 and would be working for the State of La. at the eligibility determinations office for the Office of Family Support. Law school was still a distant dream. I was having fun, loved my work and was friends with an extraordinarily pretty girl named Stacey Johnson. She was tall, blond and was a golfer. In fact, I still have the set of clubs she sold me. We played several times, but it never went beyond golf dates. She showed up once with another dude but I couldn't tell if he was her boyfriend or not. Oh, back to the weekend. LSU took two out of three from MIssissippi State. For a team with a meager lineup we have, Coach Manieri is doing pretty good. We got shelled the first game 12-3 and came back to win two. That didn't seem to happen under Smoke Laval, the former coach. One only hopes the scrappiness will continue.

Ten Favorite Movies and stuff

Eye Dr. the other day. N.O. duty tomorrow.

I was thinking the other day about a wrestling show I saw many years ago on TBS. This was back when we still had the WCW. It seems that Sting wanted to wrestle a bad guy, but the storyline is he wouldn't sign a contract to wrestle. It may have been Ravishing Rick Rude, but I can't remember. Anyway, Rude is in the ring to wrestle the nobody of the week when a busty girl comes in the ring, ostensibly to get his autograph, The Rude character is quite the horndog, you understand. So, he signs the paper for the girl and kisses her and gyrates his hips. A few minutes later, Sting comes up to the ring with the girl and Rude is understandibly angry and confused. This is when Sting proudly produces the "paper" Rude signed for the girl and says "have you heard of carbon copies" and waved the "contract" with Rude's carbon copy signature on it. Rude blusters something, however appearing to follow the storyline that indeed, he had been duped into signing a contract. As an attorney, I find this quite amusing. The WCW fans, of course, though that Rude had now signed a contract to wrestle when, in any jurisdiction in the civilized world, the "carbon copy" makes it as much of a contract as a fortune cookie. But, the amusement factor is there.

Ten Favorite Movies
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Field of Dreams
3. The French Connection
4. Dr. Strangelove
5. About Last Night
6. North by Northwest
7. 2001
8. Taxi Driver
9. Casablanca
10. Silverado

New Band

Because I am such a movie geek, one of my favorite sites is IMDB.com. When I saw 28 Days Later, I checked out to see what other stuff the main actors had been in. The one that played the girl, her name is Megan Burns. When I checked things out, I found that she fronts a band called Betty Curse. They have a myspace page and a website. What a cool band! They sound like a combination of The Replacements and the Darling Buds.

This LSU sports forum I visit and post, called tigerdroppings.com, did something cool. When you create your profile, you can list your favorite team. Most, of course, are LSU, but there are many other teams represented. One guy said we all should change our favorite team to Virginia Tech (at least until the first week in September, when they come to Tiger Stadium). That is a neat idea and a great way to show our support.

Let's see

Let's see if we can be a little more regular. Damn, what an awful, awful day of Va. Tech. What can you do, though? One crazy person with a gun, how hard to stop.

Jackie Robinson day yesterday. How cool, all of the players wearing 42. Here at LSU, Chris McGee wore 42 for the LSU game. What a good guy.

National Conference of Black Mayors here next month. Clinton, Obama, Edwards and Richardson gonna be here. Rallies? I hope so.

I cannot, cannot overstate how wonderful HDTV is. You can see the friggin laces on the baseball when the pitcher throws it. Watching regular TV for sports is such a letdown now.

New Year

The first democratic presidential debate is scheduled for April. Gee, I hope we'll have time to fully evaluate the candidates so's we can decide on our nominee for 2008. Actually, this is my favorite part of the political campaign. Where else will we have (possibly) the next president of this U.S. within back slappin' distance of us normal folks.